Adults should not be lectured about their "private enjoyment of legal pornography", says one of David Cameron's ministers.

Nick Boles, a Conservative planning minister, intervened in the pornography debate in the wake of the British premier's crusade against children accessing sexual images online.

The MP backed Mr Cameron's crackdown, saying the government needed to help parents who seek to stop their children being exposed to "appalling risks and horrors" online.

However, he suggested the party should not go so far as to sound disapproving about legal pornography for adults.

ENJOYMENT

"As a Conservative, my starting point is that people should be free to live their lives as they choose," he said. "And I am not going to start lecturing consenting adults about their private enjoyment of legal pornography."

Under Mr Cameron's new proposals, internet companies will have to ask every web user in the UK whether or not they want access to sexual images.